The differences between a temple and a shirine

 

Hello!

I went to Kiyomizu-dera Temple the other day.

I pulled a sacred lot.

My friend attracted great good luck.

However, I was bad luck.

The differences between a temple and a shirine In this report, I describe the differences between a temple and ashrine. The common simple way of distinguishing between a temple and ashrine is to check whether that building has a Torii or not. Anothercommon way is to check whether that building has a cemetery or not. If

that building has a Torii, it is a shrine, and if that has a cemetery,
it is a temple. In detail, the place where Buddha statue is installed
and monks who teach about the Buddhist faith is a temple, and where
the soul of Japanese gods are worshipped is a shrine. However, you
might not distinguish them clearly, because both are the places of
religion in this way. I describe the differences from a perspective of
Japanese minds of soul below.
  First, I describe the temples. The temples are for worshipping
Buddha. Buddha statues are installed there and monks teach the
Buddhist faith there. Monks and nuns live in a temple. At a shrine,
you can't see the Shintai (the object in which the God lives).
However, at a temple, you can see the Honzon (the Buddha statue which
the temple worships) while worshipping. Because the Honzon is
installed at Kondo which is the building you worship, you can feel
more familiar with the Honzon of a temple than the Shintai of a
shrine. At the imperial court, Buddhist events and Buddhist rites are
not executed. The rites like giving burials to the departed,
enshrining spirit tablets called “Ihai” of them, and praying at the
family alter called “Butsudan” are unique to Buddhism. They are held
on 7 days, 49 days, one year and three years after the death.
Incidentally, foreign Buddhism do not have funerals, rites, Danka and
Darma name. Hence, the foreign Buddhism are philosophies but
religions. After Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it changed to the
religion unique to Japan.
  Next, about the shrines. The origin of shrines is the altars which
were built temporarily when the celebration was took place. This
cerebration was took place at Iwakura (the rocks which Gods lived in)
or Shintaisan (the mountain where people believed that Gods lived in)
and so on. They were not permanently installed buildings at first. The
shrines are belong to the Shinto, and worship Japanese Gods. Shrines
which have the title “Jingu” like Ise Jingu and Meiji Jingu are high
class shrines of the lot. The titles of shrines are Taisha, Jingu and
Jinja. They all belong to the Shinto. The names of other titled
shrines are given based on the God which the shrine worships. Since in
the Shinto so many Gods are worshipped, shrines worshipping one of
them are called various names. Among them, peculiarly massive ones are
called Jingu or Taisha. Generally, the shrines called Jingu or Taisha
worship the emperor and imperial ancestors. At the entrance of a
shrine, there is a Torii. In a shrine, there is a spot called
“Shiniki” where God come down. To separate this God-coming spot from
human-living area, Toriis are built. This is the reason why only
shrines have Torii. The imperial family execute rites in the Shinto
style. If any imperial person died, funerals with Shinto rites will be
conducted. The item which the soul of the departed live in is called
“Reiji” but “Ihai.” And they pray at the altar called “Tamaya” but
“Butsudan.” The Shinto rites are held in the shape of ceremonies. For
example, 10 days ceremony, 50 days ceremony,  one year ceremony, and
ten years ceremony. Unlike the Buddhism, which was born in foreign
country, the Shinto was born in Japan and it is enshrined only in
Japan. The Shinto's history is longer than the Buddhism's one